


The Guardians are failing

by AllHerDemons



Category: Science Fiction - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 05:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19289287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllHerDemons/pseuds/AllHerDemons
Summary: Kyra comes of age at 13, on one of the last remaining space stations the ring the long-lost planet of Earth, which is supposedly deserted. She receives a very unusual life work assignment, that comes with far-reaching consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am writing this for my oldest daughter, who dreams of living among the stars.

"The Uprising was our attempt to save ourselves...."

Kyra rolled her eyes as her professor's voice filled her ear pods with its dreary monotone. This was her least favorite subject. She didn't understand how this information was even useful for Senior Grads. I mean, haven't we already learned everything we're gonna need for after Grad? Kyra suppressed a groan.

Her screen-mate threw Kyra a dirty look before continuing to take notes, his stylus flying across his tablet. Another reason to hate this professor, it didn't allow recordings, video or otherwise. All note-taking had to be done by stylus, no keyboards, no auto-records, no glasscams. Ugh, she thought. I HATE manual!

The professor continued on through the lecture for another hour. Several times Kyra caught herself falling asleep, once she hastily wiped drool from her chin. Her screen-mate had turned his body and tablet away from her, most likely to prevent her from screen capturing his notes, but his stylus never slowed down.

Finally, the tone sounded for their release and Kyra jumped to her feet, knocking her knee into the desk ledge and sending her stool into the wall behind them. She pulled the pods from her ears and left them dangling from her Torc, slid her arms through the straps of her pack and cinched the waistband. In two steps she was out the portal and striding up the corridor.

On either side of her, other portals were sliding open and other students were flowing out. Faced with a rapidly filling corridor, and having less than five minutes to get to her counselor meeting, Kyra sidestepped into an alcove and waved her wristband over a small scanner.

A curved door slid into place, closing the alcove off from the corridor and warm, gentle air began blowing up from the floor. The air wrapped around her body and began lifting her up through the clear transpotube. Once she was clear of the alcove she began moving faster, winding her way through Middle Pods, towards the Admin Sector.

Lately, this particular route had been used so many times to keep up with all her counseling appointments that the views had become dull and unexciting to the point that Kyra usually just catnapped for the short trip. Today was no different, until a flash of light lit up the insides of her eyelids.

Her eyes flew open. Multipods flew past her as well as the normal blackness of space. She was too far from the Outside Rim to see stars, so what had it been? She turned her gaze away from her metal space world and dared to look below her home, toward the blue-green ball that was their lost world. It was so far away that there were no details, nothing to really see or study, so she rarely gave it a second thought, but something drew her attention to it.

She could see it and it looked just like it always did, like it always had for her whole lifetime of 13 cycles. Blue-green mush with white-grey mush swirling around it. Nothing new.

*flash*

There it was again. This time Kyra saw it. A bright green flash, spearing straight up from the planet's north pole. A shaft of light that rose so high that it seemed to reach for the stars. It rose higher and higher and higher, like an arm outstretched, and hung there in space, quivering, before slowly retreating back towards the surface and disappearing into the swirling vortex of clouds that was always over both poles.

Kyra's attention was torn away from the flash when a light buzzing alerted her to the approaching end of her shortcut. She quickly curled into a ball, flipped and landed lightly on her feet, just as the warm air disappeared and normal gravity took over again. She glanced up as the transpotube's hatch closed, but she had already lost sight of the planet.

Sighing, Kyra shifted her pack and sprinted up the corridor to her appointment.


	2. Chapter 2

She was out of breath by the time she slid to a stop outside the Counselors' main portal. The corridor was empty, so she took a minute to redo her ponytail and run her hands over her standard issue, making sure all the flaps were sealed and unwrinkled and her cuffs were straight. Kyra hated being in-between issue sizes. Her Pod Leader always made them size up as soon as an ankle or wristband showed, which always left her with having to roll her sleeves and pant legs for months. Why did I have to draw the ONE counselor who is the worst neat-freak!?! Kyra ran her tongue over her front teeth to make sure she really had gotten that bit of breakfast chew unstuck before taking a deep breath and pressing the Call pad.

"Yes?" The digitized voice was supposed to sound female, but since it was located in the Middle Pods it didn't get maintained very often and now sounded like a cross between an unoiled hatch hinge and a grinding gear.

"Kyra #1120 to see Counselor #5545." She kept her voice as monotone as possible. The Admin Drones could never figure out if she was messing with them or not.

"You are 2.48 seconds late, Kyra #1120." The Admin admonished her through the speaker. "Next time make sure to primp during your Off Hours."

Kyra felt her face getting hot as the portal slid open and she stepped inside. She hadn't thought of the Portal Cam. Damn it, she thought. Oh, well, gotta give that old droid something to harass me about, might as well be that."

The waiting room was empty. The walls were decorated with metal sculptures that represented nothing to Kyra's eye, but were probably haute couture amount the Admin Levels. She sat on the edge of the bench ledge, not daring to lean back as there was a metal wavy something that looked really sharp right behind her.

A quiet bell rang and the inner portal opened. Kyra grimaced, shifted her pack to her shoulder, and walked through.

Her counselor sat at his desk, reading a file screen, and he didn't look up when she walked in. He waved her to the stool in front of his desk and she slid into it, with her pack in her lap. He continued to read. From the angle the file screen was at, Kyra could just make out her id photo in the corner. So he still has to remind himself who I am for EVERY appointment?? Kyra internally groaned. This is going to suck.

"Sooooooo, Kyra #1120, your Senior Year grades seem to be solidly in the Average Range and it looks like you will process through Graduation with the rest of your cycle." He shot her a look and flipped through the file screen pages. "However, I have some questions about your recent assessment results."

Kyra stared at him. "I haven't gotten those results back yet. No one else in my cycle has gotten any results. Why do you have them before me?" She hadn't meant to snap at him, but exercising control over her mouth wasn't really a skill she had developed yet, not that she really tried to.

His eyebrow shot up at her tone. "I don't believe you are authorized higher than an Admin Counselor, so why would you have access before me?" He leaned back in his chair, which Kyra just realized actually looked comfortable and was not even close to a utilitarian design. Is that a new chair? Because if I'm just noticing it now, I've really had my head twisted up for a while.... She really focused on her counselor now.

He was probably about in the middle of his cycles, not more than 40 though, normal height, brown hair cut in the Admin style, gold-rimmed glasses, his silver wristband winking at her from just under the cuff of his cream-colored issue, and, Kyra was startled to notice, bright blue eyes. She had never seen such bright, clear, blue eyes before. She knew that her green eyes were an anomaly, and there were others with blue, but not this kind of blue. It took her several seconds to process before she realized he was watching her study him.

Kyra felt her face heat up again. "Sorry for staring," she mumbled.

"Uh huh." He clicked his tongue and brought his hands together in a pyramid under his chin. He continued to stare at her now.

Even her ears felt hot now. She really wanted to scrunch up on the stool, to disappear, to become a ball so small that no one could see her. He's making you uncomfortable on purpose. Don't give him the satisfaction! Her spine stiffened, she threw her shoulders back, and she returned his gaze steadily.

Apparently this met with his approval, as a ghost of a smile flitted across his face, and he sat back up to his desk again.

"So, regarding your assessment, there is some disagreement on the matter of your Advance Placement." He tapped the file screen on his desktop. "You don't exactly fit into any one category, and, yet, you qualify for all of them."

"I don't understand."

"No, I'm sure you don't." He looked at her steadily for several more minutes. "What do you know about your birth history?"

"Um, not much," she replied, thrown by the direction of the conversation. "I know that my DNA file was passed over a few times before it was selected, but my birth Pod was really good place to grow up."

"So you really don't know anything?" He leaned forward suddenly. Kyra recoiled. "You're about to hit Senior Grad, so you should know your own history accurately." He paused. "You didn't come from a DNA file. You came from a DNA tag."

"What? That's.......not possible," she stuttered. "EVERYONE comes from a DNA file. DNA tags don't exist anymore. Everyone knows that. Tags haven't been used since the Uprising because biological storage was so fragile. That's why everything went digital!"

He continued to calmly watch her.

He watched her take the information in and begin to process it.

He watched her weigh this new information against what she already knew.

He watched her come to the conclusion that she didn't know enough to believe him or not.

He watched the thirst for knowledge take over.

Good, he thought. That went smoother than was expected. They really did underestimate her.

"How was I even selected if cold storage is no longer used......" Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was saying. "Of course it's still used, or I wouldn't have been selected. Duh. But if my file, I mean, tag was in cold storage since the Uprising, then how did it ever come to be selected? It's not like my number would've randomly generated into the Selection Pool, you know?" Her gaze sharpen. "Someone pulled my tag to be Selected? For what purpose?"

He shrugged. "Unfortunately, I am not privy to all levels of information within the Admin Counselors, but I have heard murmurings asking the same question. It is my opinion that if anyone knows how this happened, they are not speaking about it to anyone."

She stared at him.

"Putting your Selection issue aside, we have more pressing matters at the moment." He pulled a file screen from a slot in the desk. "Where to place you......"

"Outer Edge."

"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow. "Why there?"

"Because I want to see the stars," came Kyra's reply before she could stop it.

"I see." He pursed his lips and sat back in his chair with his hands steepled under his chin.

"As much as I like the thought of you out on the Edge, where you can't cause any problems, the decision has been removed from my control." He pulled a small metal box from a drawer and slid it across to her. "Your Assignment was decided at another level."

She looked from him to the box. She didn't want it now. The thing she had been working towards for all her cycles and here it was in front of her and all she wanted to do was running away from it. She didn't want to open it. She didn't even want to touch it.

"Open it."

Don't touch it! she screamed inside her head. It's going to change everything!

She reached out and picked up the box. It was light, as they all were. She'd only ever seen three before. Each had produced something different.

"Do you know what's in here?"

"No."

She took a deep breath and slid her wristband across the top of the box.


	3. Chapter 3

The box did nothing.

She looked up to ask what she did wrong, and her wristband fall off her wrist.

Kyra shrieked and the counselor jumped to his feet. "What did you do?!" he yelled.

"All I did was swipe the lid!" she shouted back.

She stared down at the white wristband she had been wearing since she left the Birth Pod. Slowly, she bent over and picked it up. Awkwardly, she tried to fit it back around her wrist, but the metal clasp wouldn't latch. With a deep sigh, she let it fall back into her lap and looked up. "Now what?" she asked. "Am I being banished?"

He looked at her in shock. "No one is banished! Where would you get such an idea?" His gaze returned to box in her hand. "Maybe it's because of your Assignment?"

"Have you ever seen a band removed because of an Assignment?"

He shook his head. "Never, but I have never left this Wheel, so that really doesn't mean I know much outside my own Assignment."

She lifted the box with two hands now and raised it to eye level. It's exterior was plain. Even the scan plate fitted seamlessly into the top. "How do I open it? I already scanned it."

"Apparently you are meant to figure it out." She glanced up, expecting sarcasim, but he was leaning forward, also looking at the box.

She gave several different voice commands a try.

Nothing.

She tried lifting the top half off.

Nothing.

She tried twisting it.

Nothing.

She slumped on her stool. "Why can't I figure it out?"

"Do you want the Assignment?"

"What do you mean, 'do I want the Assignment'?" She cocked her head at him.

"Well, maybe you have to want what's in there in order to be worthy of receiving it?"

"How can I want something that I can't see or even know about???"

"Don't you ever dream of things?" he asked, quietly.

Kyra sat up. "I was born into a Worker Pod, we don't deal in dreams, we deal in Reality. We fix what needs to be fixed to keep this Wheel turning. If it stops turning, we all die. I don't have time to dream."

"Spoken like a true Worker." His expression was thoughtful. "Do you believe all of that?"

Kyra opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She constently dreamt of machines and images and places she had never seen in Reality, but had never told anyone, not even her Pod-mates.

For the last few months she had been dreaming about a place she could only assume was planet-side because there were no corridors or portals or Pods anywhere, and overhead was a strange blue ceiling that seemed to go on forever with the brightest ball of light she had ever seen. The floor under her feet was spongy and gave slightly as she walked across it. Her boots made no sounds at all. The air seemed to be heavy in her lungs, and filled her nose and mouth with smells and tastes totally unfamiliar to her brain.

"Do you dream?" he asked again.

"Yes," she said. "I dream."

With a click, the box in her hands unfolded itself, and in it's center lay a bright green band.

There was a sharp intake of breath and Kyra looked up in time to see her counselor on his feet and leaning over the desk to see closer. He looked from the band to her and back again several more times. He sat back heavily in his chair, and passed a hand over his face.

"The Center," was all he said.

"No," she said, softly. "That's not possible. THIS isn't possible. No one gets Assigned to the Center. No one can remember the last to get Assigned there. I mean, can you?"

He shook his head.

"But that means I have to leave my Pod! I have to leave everything and everyone I've even known and go to the Center for the rest of my Cycles!" She felt panic creeping in. "I won't get to come back."

"Is that really such a scary thing?" He looked at her closely, and then refered to her file screen. "You don't keep close acquiantances, you don't seem to form friendships or have ever given any indications of being interested in a partnership. You move among the groups in your Pod and, yet, you aren't a part of any of them." He glanced back up at her. "Who are you going to miss?"

She was stunned. He had just disected her life as if she was a cold-hearted machine and he was reading a schematic. A quiet voice in her head murmured that he seemed to know her better than she knew herself. She started to shut out the voice, but it was making sense and this time she listened.

She had no one close to her. Even amongst those in her Birth Pod, she really only shared space with them, never letting anyone get close. She had watched over the last couple of Cycles, as people she knew were starting to pair off into partnerships or co-habs, but she never felt the urge to follow suit with anyone.

"I guess leaving won't really affect anyone, even me," she said, slowly.


	4. Chapter 4

The alcove Kyra had been directed by her counselor to report to was in a niche at the end of an unused corridor. Kyra couldn't remember ever being in this section before, and she had been fairly certain prior to this that she had explored every nook and cranny of her Pod zone. She hitched her pack higher on her shoulder, took a deep breath and stepped inside.

A muted light flickered on, illuminating the small scan pad set in the wall. Kyra's heart was beating so hard she was sure it was going to jump right out of her chest. She had not slept the night before, and had left her Pod long before anyone had stirred.

She had told no one about her Assignment when she returned from her counseling appointment. She had rolled her sleeve down a turn to cover the bright green band and simply acted like her quiet self all evening.

Kyra stared at the scan screen. It was dark, as they usually were. Why am I hesitating? She shook her head. No one is going to miss me. They'll just assume I got the Outer Wheel Assignment that I wanted and just left without telling anyone. Which is mostly true. She sighed. Who am I kidding? They've never noticed ME, it's always been my green eyes or my weird ideas or my awkwardness or my crappy grades. I don't understand why I got THIS assignment!? 

She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the wall of the alcove. The light flickered faintly, and a light whirring sound reached her ears.

"Why so sad, little one?" a quiet voice asked in Kyra's ear.

She screamed and jumped back.

She was alone.

"Hel-hello?" her voice cracked.

"Hello." The voice was all around her.

"Who are you?" Kyra turned in a full circle in the small space and still saw nothing.

"I am Elle."

"Who?"

"More like a 'what'." The voice was monotone, but Kyra was pretty sure there was a sarcastic undertone hiding in there. It sounded like a droid, but unlike any she had ever spoken to before.

"Are you a droid?" They were all programmed to answer honestly. Lying was the ultimate transgression for a droid, as the Kyra's people relied on them as a failsafe for their home in the stars. A transgressor wasn't even given a chance at being reprogrammed, they were just Voided.

"Sort of."

Kyra started. "What do you mean, 'sort of'!? What kind of answer is that?"

"An honest one." There was a ripple in the voice that Kyra was now positive was a chuckle.

"Well," Kyra wasn't sure how to progress now. "It's not a very direct answer."

"My programming has loopholes," came the reply.

Great, Kyra thought. I'm in an unused alcove at the end of an unnoticed corridor and no one knows I'm here, with a crazy droid.

"I'm not crazy."

Kyra felt her heart skip a beat and prickles race up her arms. "What did you say?"

"I'm not crazy," the voice repeated.

"I didn't say that aloud."

"No, you didn't."

"Where are you?"

"I'm so glad you asked that!!" Elle's monotone disappeared and was replaced by a vibrant one. "I'm in your head!" Then Elle really did chuckle.

"Um.....Elle, is it?"

"Yep?"

"If you're in my head, then you're not a droid."

"Correct! Score one for you!"

"Okay......" Kyra's voice trailed off. "Is this another test?"

"Hmmmmmm, what a good question." There was silence for several seconds. "I can't tell."

"How can you not tell?! It's your programming, isn't it?" This was officially the most bizarre conversation Kyra had ever had with a machine. It almost feels like arguing with my counselor!

"Wow! I've never been compared to a human before. How do I feel about that? Hmmmm, I'll have to think about that one..." Silence for a nanosecond. "Yep, I like it. Thanks."

"Look, I'm really not sure what is happening here, but I was given the Center as my Assignment and then told to come to this alcove to report for my in-processing. Is this the right place or what?"

Another chuckle, almost a giggle this time. Yep, this is weird. Kyra couldn't stop the thought from popping into her thoughts.

There was a sigh. "Yes, you're in the right place and completely on time." Elle's voice mellowed out slightly, sounding closer to what Kyra was used to. "I do apologize for bursting in on you like this, but, honestly, I couldn't wait for you to overcome your hesitation at scanning in and wanted to meet you right away."

"I wasn't hesitating." Kyra argued.

"Yes, you were." Elle's tone was soft. "And I don't blame you. This is a big step into the Unknown for you, and you know nothing about what's in your future. That's a lot of growing up to do in a short span of time."

"I won't even get to go through the Senior Grad ceremony with the rest of my Cycle." Kyra knew she sounded petty as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

"Do you really want to go?"

After a moment, she realized the thought really did sadden her. Her world had basically been limited to everyone in her Cycle and her Pod. Accepting her Assignment was going to take all of that away from her. She hadn't had anyone she called a "friend", but she hadn't been without people. Now she was sure she was heading towards complete isolation.

"Do I have to miss it?"

"I don't know." Elle answered. "I don't have a programmed answer for that question." There was a humming sound. "But, I know you and I can figure it out together! After all, that's why you're coming to me, to help me figure something out."

"Huh?"

"Look, Kay-ra," Elle's voice was suddenly serious. "Communicating with you like this is becoming a serious drain on my resources, can you just scan your band and come to me now? Then we can finish this in person."

"Um, give me a sec. And it's not 'Kay-ra', it's pronounced 'Keera'."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Did you just apologize?!"

"Yes. Was I not supposed to?"

Kyra was taken aback. "Are you sure you're a droid?"

"Nope. I'm not sure about that at all. So, are you coming or not?"

The scanner pad flickered to life, waiting for her wristband.


End file.
